


Sheer simplicity

by orphan_account



Category: Free!
Genre: Boyfriends, Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 08:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16364489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Rin just wants a photo of his boyfriend, but Haru wants to ruin all of his plans. Or does he?





	Sheer simplicity

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this fic a long time ago, but nothing has changed since then because I'm still hopelessly in love with these two swimming idiots, so I just edited it a bit to make it fit into a post s3 scenario. It's definitely not my first fic, but it's my first fic on ao3. I hope you guys like it!

Haruka looked at the selfie Rin had just sent him and smiled in the quiet privacy of his apartment.

Rin was flashing his usual shark toothed smile at the camera and showing off the furry ball he had in his arms: a black kitty with shockingly bright blue eyes. 

"Reminds you of someone?" was the text attached to the photo.

Laying down on the bed and letting his head fall down on his pillow, Haruka studied every particular of the photo. He stared at Rin's messy hair tied in a ponytail, focusing on the collarbones revealed by his black tank top and the lone shoulder exposed by his grey hoodie. He observed the strong knuckles gripping the cat, paying attention to the mischievous glint in Rin’s eyes and the curve of the smirk that span across his face. He was drawn especially to that.

Rin didn't even give him time to answer, not even a minute later he was already calling him.

Haruka was clearly pleased by his boyfriend's eagerness, but tried to sound completely unruffled as he accepted the incoming call with a neutral: "Hello?" 

"Did you see it?", Rin wasn't trying to hold back anything. He sounded excited and somehow breathless. The last detail piqued Haruka's curiosity.

"Why are you running?", he asked, furrowing his brows. 

"I have to get back to my dorm, I just sneaked out to feed the little guy."

"Isn’t it past your curfew?", Haruka inquired again, glancing at his bedside clock.

“My roommate is covering for me." Rin sounded more hushed but less hurried; he probably was indoors now. "So, did you see it?", he repeated.

"Yeah."

As Rin huffed loudly on the phone, Haruka imagined him rolling his eyes at his usual unwillingness to cooperate. 

"Well?", the exasperation was evident in his voice, "What did you think?" 

"The cat is cute", Haruka said.

"Ah, is that so..."

Was Rin fidgeting now? Probably not, but it sure sounded like it. Haruka felt himself smiling without even meaning it.

"Well...what about me?", Rin asked.

Haruka knew he was being a brat at this point, but riling Rin up was just too entertaining to pass up. "What about you?"

"What did you think of me?", Rin's voice grew louder, a sign that he was probably getting irritated. His desire to know his boyfriend's opinion, though, still seemed to win over his bad temper.

"Want me to call you cute too?", Haruka teased.

The phone in his hand grew hotter, his cheeks flushing at his own words, but he still liked to think some of that warmth was due to Rin's own massive blush from the other side of the call.

Of course he couldn't physically see it, but as his boyfriend spluttered down the line, he was certain it was there.

"Wh-I am not cute!" 

"I didn't say you were, I just asked you if you wanted me to tell you that", Haruka bit his lip to stop himself from emitting any sound that betrayed his seriousness.

"Calling me handsome or cool would have been fine!"

"You're too loud. At this rate you're going to get in trouble", Haruka was quick to remind him.

"Fine! Forget I asked anything! I knew you wouldn't make things easier for me", he muttered under his breath, "Just send me a photo of yourself in exchange, and try to make a decent expression."

Haruka frowned against the pillow sheets. "No, I don't like having my picture taken."

"Haruuuu, come on! I haven't seen you in two weeks!", Rin whined.

Even if they both lived in Tokyo now, they went to different universities and trained all day with their respective swimming teams. In their daily lives, sometimes their busy schedules seemed a bigger obstacle than faraway Australia.

"I can't, I'm in the bath and don't want to get out", he lied.

"So what? Stay there. Actually, that's even better!"  

Wait a second, was Rin seriously giggling?

"Pervert”, Haruka scolded him lightly, “I will never send you any pictures of me now that you said that."

"Really?”, Rin laughed before adding, “ _I’m_ the pervert? I'm not the one who stared for over a minute at my half naked picture in front of all our friends back in high school!"

Haruka scowled in the dark. Gou, or worse Nagisa, must have told him that.

"That was because you were acting like an ass", he paused, breathed in and out, and used the last bit of air to say: "And I missed you."

Haruka heard a soft thump echoing from Rin’s side of the conversation, then nothing else, except for the loud beating of his own heart pounding in the ear pressed against the phone.

"I-I missed you too", Rin eventually said.

Haruka hoped the hitch he caught in his boyfriend’s voice wasn't due to incoming tears. He didn't like to see Rin crying regardless, even if in certain occasions his nether regions seemed to think otherwise, but the thought of Rin doing it somewhere Haruka couldn't reach disturbed him even more.

Rin spoke again, though, and the clarity in his voice assured Haruka that he wasn’t going to dissolve into sobs anytime soon: "...and I miss you now, as well. That's why you should send me a picture of yourself, so I can miss you _less_."

Haruka snorted. "No, I won’t", he repeated and was caught mid sentence by a sudden yawn, "Let's just go to sleep, Rin. I am tired."

"Oi! Don't fall asleep in the bath!"

Haruka rolled his eyes: "Idiot, I am not taking a bath right now."

He barely understood Rin’s outburst at the reveal of his little lie, but he heard him abruptly ending the call. Confused, he stared at the blank home screen of his phone for a few seconds, before he sighed and placed it back on the nightstand.

Rin would get over his tantrum after a good night’s sleep.

He covered himself with the light blanket rumpled at his feet and was already drifting off, when a soft buzz made him open his eyes again.

He had a new text from Rin: "Good night."

It was quickly followed by another one: "I named the cat Haru because he reminded me of you, but unlike you, he doesn't make a big fuss when I want to take a picture of him. And he doesn't hate me as much as Steve, so I already like him better than any other 'Haru'."

Haruka bit his lips in amusement and he forced himself to tap a reply, even though it was hard to keep his eyes open: "He doesn't hate you just because you're his only source of food", he sent and typed another text, "I hope you two are happy together."

"Idiot.”, said Rin's new text, “He's still a mackerel freak though, there's just not getting out of that."

"I'll bring him some then.”, Haruka wrote, “This Saturday, maybe."

For whatever reason, Rin took a while to answer; so much that in the meanwhile Haruka had already almost fallen asleep. He jumped awake at the buzzing of his phone in his hands.

"We'll be waiting", it said.

Like ever night, Haruka’s last thoughts of the days drifted to Rin. Unlike the other nights, his face looked a lot clearer than it had ever been after weeks of separation.

Having a reference really helped the imagination, _huh_. Maybe photos weren’t that useless. Perhaps he could be persuaded to take one with Rin and the ‘other Haru’ just to shut Rin up once and for all.

 

That’s how he fell asleep; picturing Rin’s clear smile in his mind and unconsciously mimicking it with his own lips.


End file.
